


the truth on my lips

by LilyRosePotter



Category: Crooked Media RPF
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Get Together, M/M, Magical Realism, Multi, truth curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21843262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyRosePotter/pseuds/LilyRosePotter
Summary: Jon can't stopsayingthings.
Relationships: Jon Favreau/Jon Lovett/Tommy Vietor
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	the truth on my lips

**Author's Note:**

  * For [labellementeuse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/labellementeuse/gifts).

The day starts out like any other.

Jon reaches to slam his alarm with a groan, stumbles out of bed to the bathroom, out of his bedroom to the back door when Leo barks impatiently.

“You’re the very best boy,” he praises Leo muzzily when Leo comes back in, twining around Jon’s legs contentedly. “The very very best.”

He goes through the Starbucks drive-through on his way to work, groaning internally when the guy who always puts too much syrup in his drink appears in the window. Jon takes a sip of the drink as soon as it’s passed to him and frowns.

“This is wrong,” Jon’s a little surprised at himself, he usually just waits until he gets to the office and supplements from the Keurig rather than making a scene. He must need the caffeine this morning more than he realized. He holds the drink out to the barista, still in the window, “It’s too sweet, can I get another?”

Jon’s a little ashamed of himself by the time he gets to the office. He doesn’t like to make demands like that, it feels rude.

But, his re-made coffee tastes perfect, so maybe it was worth it after all.

“Hey ba- bro,” Tommy looks up from his desk, face a little pale.

“Bro?” Jon snorts. “Are we in a teen comedy or something?”

“Dunno,” Tommy shrugs a little, “did you... ah, watch the game last night?”

“You know I did,” Jon’s eyebrows go up. They texted through it. “Why are you being weird?”

“M not,” Tommy shakes his head. “We need to go to the conference room for the meeting anyway.”

Jon follows him with a frown, shrugging at Tanya when Tommy pushes past her brusquely, “someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

“You have no idea where I woke up,” Tommy snaps from his seat.

Jon doesn’t, that’s true. Though now he’s picturing Tommy, sprawled out in his bed like he used to in hotel rooms on the campaign trail, pale skin against pale sheets interrupted only by the freckles dotting his back, the curve of his ass under the sheets, Tommy’s feet pressed against the footboard strangely elegantly.

“Let’s just start,” Tanya rolls her eyes. “We’ve gotta figure out what we’re doing about the hearings next week.”

Lovett flies in twenty minutes after they’ve started, tugging his hat off messy curls. Jon traces Lovett’s hand with his eyes as Lovett flops down into a chair, dropping his stuff everywhere. He looks like he didn’t bother with a shower after waking up, the bags under his eyes pronounced in the way that means he stayed up way too late playing video games.

“You’re _late_,” Tommy snaps, icy and harsher than he normally is.

Lovett flinches back in his seat, cheeks pinking. “I’m sorry, my alarm-”

“It’s alright,” Jon smoothes it over automatically. “You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

Tommy _hisses_ and they all turn to look at him in surprise. “You’re so fucking _soft_ on him,” Tommy snaps at Jon. “It makes me want to-”

They don’t get to find out what it makes him want to do as Tommy visibly forces his jaw shut and shoves back from the table, his chair clattering to the ground as he stalks towards the door and slams it on the way out.

“There I go,” Lovett jokes lamely, his voice flat and his eyes a little wild, “chasing everyone away.”

“Vote Save America,” Tanya says firmly and loudly, sliding a piece of paper to Lovett. “All of you need to focus so I can get something _done_ today.”

***

The livestream starts out normal enough.

Lovett goes on a rant about texting that Jon’s heard a hundred times, but Lovett usually keeps off air.

Jon finds words tripping out of his mouth over and over, before he’s decided what answer he wants to give.

His brain is spinning by the time Priyanka reads a question about the rant wheel on _Lovett or Leave It_ and Lovett says, too quick, too easily, _not normal_, “honestly, last week’s episode fell a bit flat.”

Lovett’s got a hand over his mouth before Jon turns fully towards him.

“I thought it was great,” Jon says loyally, automatically. It’s always great, Lovett is the best of them at knowing what people want to hear, at connecting with the crowd. “It’s always great, it’s the best show we have.”

Lovett flushes deep and ducks his head. “What’s next Pri?”

Priyanka smirks as she looks at her screen. “Someone on Facebook wants to know if you think a horse sized duck or a hundred duck sized horses would do better against Trump in a debate.”

“Hundred duck sized horses,” Lovett says immediately. “They could create a better distraction.”

“Seriously,” Priyanka giggles, “What do you guys think will be most important for the eventual nominee to do during the general election debates?”

“Aside from win?” Lovett snorts. “Not get pulled into the mud, probably.”

“None of them can win,” Jon says darkly, then bites his tongue. He didn’t mean to say that- He doesn’t think… the field is full of qualified candidates who have smart campaigns and there has to be a way to end the nightmare of the Trump era.

He just can’t see it.

“Jon,” Lovett is staring at him, eyes wide and shocked.

“Come on,” Priyanka says nervously, “not even Marianne?”

“I don’t think any of the candidates in the race have what it takes,” Jon’s mouth says clearly, and, he realizes as he says it that he really does think so.

“That’s not-” Lovett starts, eyes wild. “The country is smarter than that. The democratic electorate is smarter than that. The-”

“And we’re off!” Elijah says loud and sudden.

Tanya is standing behind Elijah, holding Tommy by the elbow, her eyes stony.

Jon glances at his watch. They were supposed to be on the stream for another fifteen minutes.

“What?” Lovett asks Elijah, then turns to Jon. “What the _fuck_ was that?”

Jon shakes his head helplessly. “I don’t _know_. I didn’t mean to- I’d never tell the listeners that.”

“You just did,” Tanya frowns. “Something weird is going on. I just got a text from a producer at MSNBC and they’re having a weird day too.”

“Weird,” Tommy scoffs. “None of us can stop our mouths from _talking_ and it’s a ‘weird day.’”

Jon stills and runs his brain over all the odd things that have happened today, from his Starbucks meltdown to Tommy’s _makes me want to-_

“What,” Lovett scoffs, “We’re under some _spell_?” His voice rises at the end of the question in the way it only does when he’s legitimately terrified and trying to hide it.

“Whatever it is,” Tanya’s voice is clear and firm. “It’s only affecting you three so far. Go the fuck home before you wreck the company any more.”

“We’re not _wrecking_ anything,” Jon protests, but Tommy’s grabbed his elbow, pinching a little too hard, to pull him towards the door.

Lovett trails behind as they get their bags, their keys, the dogs, and traipse out of the office to their cars in silence.

Tommy lets go of Jon’s elbow only to open his own trunk and drop Lucca’s bag inside, before breaking the silence, finally, with a deadly quiet, “Do you really think that?” aimed at Jon.

Jon bites his lip, feeling the loss of Tommy’s warm touch acutely. “Sometimes,” Jon says softly, honestly, though at this point he’s not sure he could lie if he tried. “When the news is bad or the debates are bullshit. You help though, both of you, the company, the listeners. I couldn’t-” He shakes his head. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

Tommy gives him a piercing stare, eyes cloudy as he visibly swallows and says, choking a little, “I gotta go,” picking up Lucca and grabbing for the door.

“What the fuck?” Jon asks, but Tommy’s already reversing out of the spot.

“How is he _doing_ that?” Lovett says, finally, when the cloud of dust Tommy left them in has long since settled. “He’s holding back what he wants to _say_.”

“I don’t know,” Jon shakes his head again, turning to look at Lovett, still hunched around himself, voice still carrying that note of desperation. “Tommy’s always chosen his words carefully. Too carefully.”

“You never-” Lovett starts, bites his lips to stop himself and gives up with an irritable huff. “You never criticize Tommy. Even when he’s got every wall up.”

“What good would it do?” Jon shrugs a little. “I tell him when he needs to know something, but not like I’m gonna make him stop distancing himself once he’s set on it.”

“Right,” Lovett says softly, looking back at the edge of the lot with a shiver. “He’d do anything to keep the last shred of emotional detachment from us. Lucky Tommy, to have that option.”

“Lovett,” Jon can’t stop himself from reaching out, slowly. As he expects, Lovett pulls away. “You don’t have to be scared,” Jon presses, bolder than he ever is. “Tanya will figure this out.”

Lovett flinches back, like Jon… Like Jon’s stripped away all of his defenses. “We should leave,” Lovett says too harshly, tugging Pundit’s leash to pull her away from Leo. “Wait this out away from prying ears.”

“I never want to leave you,” Jon says, automatic, instinctual, _true_.

Lovett pulls Pundit’s leash harder and walks away without looking back.

***

Jon is absently pitching a tennis ball against the wall and catching it again, while Leo whines confusedly at his side when his phone rings.

He discovered in about five minutes after he got home from the office that whatever disease is afflicting them today applies to Twitter too when he couldn’t make his hands scroll past a Bernie Bro in his mentions accusing Jon of truly horrendous opinions on Medicare4All.

Elijah had texted him roughly 45 seconds after he logged on: _Tanya says get offline or she’s sending me to take your phone_. Jon has vivid memories of the last time they resorted to that, so he dropped his phone on the coffee table and tried to find something else to do.

The TV is all daytime soaps, reruns, and The View - where he couldn’t tell if the hosts have been similarly afflicted to him, Tommy, and Lovett or if this is just Meghan McCain on a good day. Either way, Jon couldn’t stand it for more than five minutes before he was pacing again.

He ate last night’s leftover pad thai, read the magazine Andy pointedly “forgot” last weekend so that Jon would read the four paragraph article about his new role, and did a load of laundry before checking his phone again and finding that only an hour had passed since he got home.

So he resorted to playing with Leo, then forgetting to play with Leo in his distraction, thinking about all the things that had gone unsaid in their oddly truthful morning.

_What_ does Jon’s softness towards Lovett make Tommy want to do? What exactly is _the option_ Lovett doesn’t have? What would Lovett have let slip if Jon had caught his arm and kept him from walking away? And what the hell was Tommy going to say when Jon walked into the office this morning?

Jon has never been more relieved than he is when his phone rings, stopping his spiral into the terrifying _what if_ of all of Tommy and Lovett’s cues meaning exactly what he wants them to.

“Yeah, Tanya?” Jon answers.

“Let me conference in Lovett,” Tanya says without preamble.

“Group calls,” Tommy sighs while the sound of Tanya’s breath as she dials fills the line, “Why don’t we have them?”

“Tell me you have an answer to this,” Lovett demands as he connects. “I picked up an actual pen and notebook and still can’t make the words work.”

That’s terrifying. Jon hadn’t thought to try writing, though of course Lovett would.

“Good news,” Tanya’s grin is audible even though her tone is even. “While I, personally, did not figure this out as I am not a magician, the Des Moines PD has a woman in custody who claims to be a witch who _cast a spell_ on the ‘establishment media’ to get them to tell the truth about the one true savior Bernie Sanders.”

“No shit,” Lovett says, awed.

“Magic isn’t real,” Tommy says nervously. “That sounds _insane_.”

“Apparently it’s credible,” Tanya says. “According to the very stressed police liason I talked to, they’ve convinced her to undo the spell and it should wear off soon. I’m giving the team the rest of the day, but you three should start brainstorming our statement for when this inevitably becomes public.”

“While we’re still under a _truth spell_?” Lovett asks incredulously. “Jon might go all doom and gloom again and that’ll only make everything worse.”

“Hey,” Jon protests halfheartedly. He’s glad, honestly, to have an explanation, even an insane one. “I’m just hanging out with Leo, all sunshine and rainbows here.” He thinks he keeps his voice light, but it’s hard to tell. An explanation is good, but-

But, if it’s really a truth curse, then that means it might all be true.

“You can’t go back on Twitter yet,” Tanya warns. “I’ll text you when I know more. Get a drink, walk your dogs, call your family and tell them you love them, I don’t care.”

“What if we don’t love our families,” Lovett says dourly, but Tanya’s already hung up.

Tommy sighs softly across the line, “I’m halfway through the book for my next interview, at least.”

“More productive than in the office,” Lovett says bitterly, “You should run away from us more often.”

“Lovett,” Tommy starts, but the line is dead. “Did he just hang up?”

“Yeah,” Jon says softly. He doesn’t think it’s even the truth curse that makes him ask: “What aren’t you saying Tom? We’re your best friends.”

“I _can’t_,” Tommy says immediately, a note of panic in his voice.

“_Tom_,” Jon sighs, but Tommy’s hung up too.

Jon picks up the tennis ball again.

***

“I brought pizza,” Lovett calls loudly as he opens Jon’s front door smoothly, “and you need to lock your damn door.”

“You should knock,” Jon retorts. “What are you doing here, I thought you were hiding from the curse?”

“I was,” Lovett sighs, stepping further inside, setting the pizza box down on the table as Pundit runs to curl around Leo in the armchair. “But then I realized I was being an idiotic coward.”

Jon’s head snaps up from the TV. “What?”

Lovett shrugs, stepping over to perch gingerly on the edge of the sofa, as far as he can get from Jon. “I missed you,” he says so quietly Jon barely hears it. “I don’t want to hide from you, anymore.”

“I don’t want you to hide either,” Jon turns towards him.

“I know,” Lovett swallows. “You told me that you never want to leave. And I know you meant it, you were under a truth spell.”

Jon swallows hard at the look in Lovett’s eyes. “I did mean it. I should have said- I followed you to Los Angeles cause I missed you so much.”

“_Jon_,” Lovett breathes, eyes lighting up with hope. “You don’t mean..”

“I do,” Jon reaches for his hand, willing his pounding heart to slow. “I’ve, I think I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”

“_Jon_,” Lovett says again, sliding closer and squeezing Jon’s hand so tightly. “Me too.”

“Hey, Jon, I-” Tommy steps through the door that Lovett left ajar and freezes on the threshold.

“Tommy,” Jon’s heart thuds.

Lovett pulls back and Jon feels the loss of him as keenly as he feels the look on Tommy’s face.

Jon presses his knees together and lets himself feel the truth he’s been denying, even while everything else spilled out. He needs them. Both of them. Forever.

“I came to apologize,” Tommy says awkwardly, “but I can..” he takes a step back towards the door.

“No,” Lovett says before Jon can manage words. “Don’t leave. I want to hear that apology.”

“I…” Tommy twists his hands.

“Tommy,” Jon prompts, “please, stay.”

Tommy blinks between them, stepping forward, one halting step at a time. “You were right, Jon. I wasn’t saying- I was hiding. I’ve been an ass all day cause I could feel it trying to slide off my tongue.”

“What?” Jon frowns at him, hoping against hope. “What’s _it_, Tom?”

“I-“ Tommy glances between Jon and Lovett.

“Whatever it is,” Lovett swallows. “It can’t be worse than how you’ve been today. Lately. Do you-“ he shudders and Jon aches to reach out for him but knows Lovett would just shove him away. “Do you want to leave Crooked?”

“_What_?” Tommy takes three steps forward in one, tripping to a stop in front of Jon and Lovett. “Of course I don’t want to _leave.” _

“Then what?” Jon urges, meeting Tommy’s eyes. “Just spit it out.”

Tommy visibly fights with himself for another few seconds before gasping a little. “I love you, okay? Both of you, for all the ways you make my life better, for how you make living in this hellscape possible, for all your goddamned annoying quirks that I can't stop thinking about, ever.”

“Tommy,” Lovett breathes. “You, really?”

“Yeah,” Tommy says, face already shuttering back into the detached mask Jon hates. “But you don’t- I’ll take a few days off, give us all some space.”

Jon reaches for Lovett’s hand and yanks him to his feet as Jon stands. He reaches for Tommy with his other hand.

“Idiot,” Jon says fondly as Tommy lets Jon take his hand, takes a halting step forward. “You too, always.”

“Yes,” Lovett agrees, voice sure and strong as he grabs Tommy to close the circle, pulling them all close together. “I love you both.”

“Jon,” Tommy leans forward to kiss Jon, gentle but electric, then pulls back to look at Lovett, “_Jon_,” pulling Lovett in for a kiss of his own.

Jon waits as long as he can, watching them meld together before letting an indignant noise escape his throat and reaching for Lovett’s face “my turn.”

“God,” Tommy says as he watches. “This is…”

“Perfect,” Jon turns to kiss him again.

It feels like they become one entity, trading kisses for an indeterminate time until all their phones buzz.

Lovett gets to his first and reads shakily, “Tanya says the curse has been cleared for thirty minutes, we’re good to go.” He glances at Jon and Tommy nervously, “That means it was gone before I got here... Anyone want to take any of that back?”

“All the truth, curse or no,” Jon promises, stroking Lovett’s cheek gently. “I’ll tell you any time you want to hear it.”

“I love you,” Tommy says simply, pulling them both in again to hear the truth in the beat of his heart.


End file.
